Beauty Musings & Rogue Ramblings

Tag Archives: Jo Malone

Okay, so I was so wrapped up eating my macarons and sipping my champagne at Saks that I failed to snap some photos of the Jo Malone event they held recently. Complete with free samples, tasty snacks and booze, there was also a Jo Malone representative there explaining the newest collection, Sugar & Spice, along with all that JM offers, and the best blending combinations to pair the new fragrances with.

It was so much fun just indulging at bit with other JM lovers, and of course, splurging a little on a few new fragrances for Spring and Summer.

So, I thought I’d share my haul of JM goodies…

JM Haul + Free Bag with Saks Beauty Samples + Free JM goodies

Blue Agava & Cacao, Nectarine Blossom & Honey

Redcurrant & Cream, Lemon Tart

Free JM goodies that came with my JM Haul

Samples of every JM fragrance Saks offers

Oh and if you haven’t discovered Jo Malone yet, I’d definitely stop into the closest store/counter and give the brand a try. JM fragrances are unique and made to be layered, so you can really make the brand your own.

As in Wild Bluebell, the Jo Malone London Cologne, for all you dirty birds out there!

Deliciously dewy, this cologne drenches the skin with the delicate scent of bluebells. Luminous with lush persimmon, lily of the valley and eglantine. Mesmerising. {Courtesy of Jo Malone London}

This has quickly become one of my most perfect and favorite scents to wear. It is the just right fragrance to transition from Winter into Spring and to carry me through till Summer.

It’s a light floral scent, without being too feminine nor powdery. The fragrance stays close to the body, so it’s not a suffocating fragrance for those around you. Granted I would never categorize Wild Bluebell as being capable of being offensive to the nose at all.

While it is a clearly floral based cologne with the tiniest hint of fruitiness, it is a quite clean and earthy scent. It’s quite different from many other fragrances I own – a casually charming scent that makes me feel like I’ve wandered through a meadow in the forest. That sounds a little ridiculous and silly now that I am actually writing it out, but I have actually walked through a meadow in a forest and Wild Bluebell brings me back to that memory – just a bit more whimsical.

What may be surprising to many is that Wild Bluebell contains no true bluebell extracts. You see the common bluebell, also known as The English Bluebell, is a protected flower species in the United Kingdom – where over half of all common bluebells are found and where the Jo Malone brand is based.

Instead, other fragrances were combined to mimic the bluebell. After some hunting around, here is the composition of Wild Bluebell from Christine Nagel, the master perfumer to thank for this fragrance, from an article in The Telegraph :

Nagel [Christine Nagel, an award-winning master perfumer who, for the last 30 years, has created fragrances for the likes of Dior, Armani, Lalique and Narcisso Rodrigues] began her interpretation with dewy floral and a touch of clove in the top notes, “exaggerating certain facts – the wet ground against the spiciness, something a bit piquant and characteristic”. Orange flower was used to blend these into the more obviously wild-floral heart [lily of the valley, hyacinth] of the cologne – jasmine and eglantine with a corresponding dash of tartly fruity persimmon.

At the base rests white musk – “the petticoat that holds up the scent, like in Dior’s New Look” – and a tiny amount of [white] amber, “because it melts sensuously on the skin”.

All of which results in something clear, discrete and deceptively naïve without being so fragile that it disappears, leaving a trail that is softly lasting without being aggressive. If scents had weight, this is a satin, not a velvet – a wildflower rather than a heady hothouse bloom.

Jo Malone’s Wild Bluebell is definitely my most expensive fragrance, but for me it was a splurge that was worth it. Jo Malone has an extensive range and I would encourage anyone to at least wander into your nearest department store that carries Jo Malone (or a Jo Malone boutique if you are lucky enough to live in a location that has them) to sniff around.

I literally cannot stop spraying Wild Bluebell on everything! Pillows, clothes, the car and ME of course! This may pose a problem, as I mentioned, it was a bit of a splurge for me – but I just can’t resist.

And a lovely bonus for those who appreciate presentation as much as I do (they do this in all stores when you purchase a Jo Malone product):